Splitting a Soul~Chapter 25
Shadows seemed to bend around Aisling as she confronted the Gatekeeper mostly by herself. Kimi and Jack tried to get in a clear shot, but Aisling was moving around so fast that it was hard to shoot without the possibility of hitting her. Meanwhile I was stuck by a river trying to channel the powers of the Water Elemental. For some reason, in this room I couldn’t sense their presence; like their main full forms were being blocked from me. That meant it was up to me to try and control the monster wave behind me. Meanwhile Aisling was calling on the dark powers of the Underworld, plus Kimi and Jack had become idle bystanders. “You’re going to hurt yourself. You aren’t helping anyone,” the Gatekeeper chided as he started to seriously fight Aisling at this point. He still wasn’t using any weapons, but his hand-to-hand combat was more than enough. Aisling on the other hand seemed more like a wild animal that this point, flailing around without any kind of pattern or strategy. I wondered if she could even hear me if I called out to her, but took my mind away from that for now and focused on the water. Earlier I had been moving the rock dummies of Kimi and Jack while gathering the water, but now all my focus was on one thing. I needed to end this now or I could lose one of my closest friends and I wasn’t willing to let that happen. I could feel the water fighting against me, trying to break free of my control like it was alive. I had learned from El that water didn’t like to be contained, which I thought was silly at the time. It wasn’t like water was alive, but then again I had heard stranger things. In my mind I asked the water to help save my friends and I pushed all my power into my sword. It glowed a light shade of blue and the water rose up another ten feet in a second. “Aisling, get out of the way!” I ordered, but she didn’t seem to hear me. “Aisling, listen to me!” She turned her head for a second and she looked at me unrecognizing. However I saw this look on her face that reminded me of someone trying to solve a puzzle and realization dawned on her. She gave me a slight nod before jumping into the air over the Gatekeeper, hitting him in the head with her shield, and running to the side. “Ouch,” the Gatekeeper said as he rubbed his head. After seeing Aisling run off, he turned his attention back to us and charged. “Slow him down,” I ordered and Jack took the front line. He pointed his staff at the Gatekeeper and smiled. “You know that won’t work on me,” the Gatekeeper taunted as he charged. “Not aiming for you,” Jack retorted and fired a beam of solid ice. It tilted downward and froze a patch of area under the Gatekeeper’s feet. He slipped on the ice and began sliding until he landed in a very deep mud puddle I had just created. “Is a mud pie the best you got?” he asked, almost laughing as he said it. “Not quite,” Kimi added as she pulled the string of her bow back and three arrows appeared. She fired them all at once and they landed in the area around the Gatekeeper, causing the mud to dry and the Gatekeeper began to struggle as he was now waist deep in dried earth. “That’s not cool man,” the Gatekeeper said as he began to try and pull himself out of the ground. Eventually he just started smashing the ground with his fist until it cracked. There was no time left; now was the time to attack. If this didn’t work, we were screwed. “Gatekeeper!” I yelled to the blue guy struggling in the ground. He stopped for a second to look at me, his eyes glaring daggers into me as he seemed angry. “We’re going to use that gate and you can’t stop us!” I thrust my sword forward and the wave morphed into a large serpent. It flew across the land and began to coil around the Gatekeeper until it took the shape of a giant whirlpool. It was so powerful that it began to rip apart the ground underneath it until it managed to pull up even the Gatekeeper himself. I could feel him flailing around inside the whirlpool, but I waited until I felt him in the complete center of it. “Jack, go!” I told him and he pointed his staff upward toward the sky. I watched as clouds formed overhead and the wind picked up with chilling speed. Jack called forth an entire blizzard that formed all around my whirlpool. Parts of it began to freeze as small icebergs formed and I could feel them hit the Gatekeeper repeatedly. After maybe a minute, the entire whirlpool was completely frozen solid and I dropped it to the ground. It kept spinning almost like a top before it finally stopped and fell to the side. “I didn’t know you could do that,” Kimi said to Jack, who almost fell to the floor in exhaustion. “Neither did I,” Jack said, smiling at us as he braced himself with the staff. “Anything’s possible I guess.” “There’s no time to waste,” I said quickly, cutting off their short lived victory. “That won’t hold him for long, I’m sure of it. We need to get Aisling to the gate now.” “Where is she?” Kimi asked as we looked around frantically. “Over there,” Jack said as he pointed over to the gate. He went to take a step forward to lead the way, but ended up falling flat on his face. “Kimi, take care of him; I’m going to get Aisling,” I ordered and she just gave me a nod. I ran over to Aisling, with my legs feeling a bit wobbly themselves, but I managed to make it over without falling. When I reached the walkway leading up to the Gate of Themis, I looked up at the sky and saw that the moon and sun were colliding in the middle. However it looked more like they were merging together, like if the moon gave off the sun’s light. The sky however still had this red shade to it and when I got closer to Aisling, she still looked as monstrous as she had before, maybe more. “Aisling, we need to get you inside that gate,” I told her and tried to usher her toward it. As we walked down the path, the Gate of Themis opening as we got closer. Aisling however seemed like she was in a daze as she just gazed as the light coming from the doors. “I could use them for good,” Aisling protested as she planted her feet. “What are you talking about?” I asked her, but still kept trying to pull her forward, which wasn’t working out well. “Did you see how strong I was? I could use these powers to help people. I may not be a full demigod, but I am stronger now,” Aisling confessed. She was now trying to pull away from me. “Aisling, you can’t control it. Eventually those powers will consume you and you’ll just be another Mormo. I don’t want you to become a monster,” I told her. What I didn’t tell her was that I didn’t want her to become a monster I would have to kill if it came to that. The first thing she would try to do would be to suck our blood and turn us into Mormos too. “I can handle it,” Aisling said, now seemingly afraid of the gate. It was like she was trying everything she could to not go into that archway. I could feel her emotions swirling around inside her head and I felt the darkness spread. I looked up at the sky and saw that the moon was almost directly above us. If I didn’t get her in there before then, she would be a vampiric demon of the night forever, or at least until she was destroyed. “No you can’t, you told me that yourself. Think Aisling, you’re the smartest person I know. Do you really believe you can handle it?” I asked, almost yelling as I looked her dead in the eyes. For a second her blood red eyes faded and gave way to grey ones. I was still linked to her after giving everyone a belief boost of power and now I believed I could save her. My feelings must have gotten through to her because she looked away. “You’re right, I can’t. But you don’t know how hard it is to give up this power. It is eating away at my mind and I so badly want to give in to it,” she sobbed, almost going into full on crying. “They make me feel important.” “You are important, to me, to them,” I said pointing to Jack and Kimi. They both gave her a friendly wave and Aisling waved back, rubbing the last of her tears away. She then put on her most serious face and looked back at the open gateway. “Ok, I’ll do it,” Aisling said determined. She began walking up by herself now and I watched with bated breath. I didn’t know what to expect and just hoped all would go well. Unfortunately demigods are never that lucky. I heard a loud crack from behind me and I turned around to see the ice whirlpool cracking all over. Jack began firing blasts of ice to keep it together, but he was already weak. A large chunk broke off and hit Jack right in the head, knocking him out cold. I turned back to Aisling. What little concentration she had been using to keep control of herself was broken by the Gatekeeper’s rising. Her eyes once again became the color of blood and she looked like she was about to flee the gate, but I couldn’t allow that. “Sorry Aisling,” I apologized. “But this is for your own good.” I ran as best I could to the entrance of the gate and wrapped my arms around her. I could feel her struggling and she was definitely a lot stronger. I concentrated on the ground beneath us and the rock walkway fired us like a catapult and we both fell into the Gate of Themis.